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Google’s 2016 Nexus Phone Might Not Be Called “Nexus Phones”
A new reports claims this year’s Nexus 2016 phones will not use the long-standing Nexus brand name
Richard Goodwin
13:11, 31 Aug 2016
This year’s Nexus phones, often referred to as Google’s 2016 Nexus Phones, will apparently not carry any Nexus branding whatsoever. No, according to reports, these new Nexus phones will go by an entirely different name — though no one seems to know what that name actually is just yet.
According to Android Central, Google WILL drop the Nexus brand this year and the reason for this is apparently rather simple: Google wants the “Google” brand front and center.
The obvious naming convention, at least in the opinion of this writer, is Pixel; Google already has the Pixel C tablet and the Pixel Chromebook, a Pixel phone seems like a logical next step.
HTC is believed to be creating this year’s Nexus phones, but the company’s branding will not feature anywhere on the handsets, allegedly. Google is apparently very keen on impressing that these phones are GOOGLE phones, not HTC ones.
“This year’s Google phones will feature additional software and a tweaked interface atop “vanilla” Android,” reports Android Central. “This will notably differentiate the new models in terms of software experience from previous years’ Nexus phones, which featured a relatively barebones Android experience — and this goes hand-in-hand with the decision to not use the “Nexus” name for the phones.”
Google has long maintained that it wants to play a more active role in the creation and dissemination of hardware. The company has fairly decent pedigree too when it comes to industrial design; just look at the Chromebook Pixel, for instance, which is one of the best-looking computers on the planet.
Google is also keen to have its own dog in the Android race as well. Even more so now that Samsung and Huawei are openly discussing life outside the Android ecosystem. With a bespoke Android phone developed by the very creators the software platform, Google can drive change and innovation in the Android space way more than it could simply by providing source code to its hardware partners.
Couple this with the growth of VR in 2016/17 and you start to see where this is going. The only thing I am slightly confused about is why Google has to drop the Nexus brand itself? I mean, everybody knows Nexus stands for Pure Android direct from Google? I don’t see why it’d want to start ALL over again with a brand new unfamiliar name for its phones?
Nexus phones are damn popular and Google taking more control over them in the future would only serve to add to their appeal.
Odd move, but I do like the idea of Google taking a more hands-on approach to its home-brew Android phones.
What about you?